Portable tiny house built from recycled water tanks can be towed by a bicycle

Tiny houses come in all shapes and sizes, and are built from all sorts of materials, but this tiny house concept uses a novel approach to creating a lightweight portable dwelling that is also said to be able to float on water.

I've been following the tiny house movement for over a decade now, ever since my family's foray into living in a very small space, and even after seeing hundreds upon hundreds of different tiny house designs, I still come across innovative concepts for using repurposed materials to build miniature dwellings that just seem to make sense, but that are only obvious after seeing them. And this portable tiny house design is definitely up there in terms of being a potentially viable idea that combines reused materials in a way that takes advantage of the materials' inherent strengths, while also being versatile and adaptable.

The design of the Taku-Tanku, from the design and architecture firm Stereotank, along with Japanese designer Takahiro Fukuda, uses a pair of 3000 liter plastic water tanks bridged by a wooden ring to form a portable, and floatable, tiny house that's so light that it can be towed by bicycle.

Built as an entry to the Little House Competition in Saitama, Japan, this year, the Taku-Tanku tiny house is claimed to be easy to assemble, using both repurposed materials and off the shelf components. The design calls for it to be mounted onto a small two-wheeled utility trailer, which can then be pulled by people, a car, or perhaps even a boat, and the tiny house is said to be light enough for a single person to move around.

The water tank tiny house design appears big enough to house at least two people, and calls for solar powered ventilation and LED lighting, a small storage area under the floor, window hatches, and a skylight. There is no kitchen or bathroom area inside the Taku-Tanku, both of which are necessary to make this tiny home into a full-time dwelling, so some additional work is necessary to cover those necessities.

According to FastCo.Exist, the design isn't even a prototype yet, but the designers would like to convert it into a simple DIY kit, allowing for people to build their own version of the house. In addition to being a potential tiny house for daily living, the design lends itself to being used as a disaster shelter, and by joining several of the tanks in a modular fashion, could also be expanded into a larger unit.